Making Tape Great

Finally, I managed to get around to testing the cassette recorders with a working ZX Spectrum. (Note that all this playing was done with the minimum of repair work - there are separate posts coming on what I fixed (or didn't)...)

Unnecessary Spectrum Pic

But. I didn't have any mono cables. I tried a stereo one and found that it was, to be blunt, useless. A stereo jack has a connector made of three metal sections. The one at the tip that enters the socket first (no sniggering at the back) is left audio, the one in the middle is right audio and the sleeve at the bottom is ground. For 3.5mm mono the tip is audio and the sleeve is ground.

In all the cassette recorders I have the 'ear' sockets are constructed so that the mechanism that holds the plug in place makes contact with the tip and sleeve for ground as expected.  But the point at which the ground connection on the plug varies. As a result, the cassette recorder might make contact with the tip and ground sleeve but the Spectrum at the other end has contact with the tip and centre ring i.e. no direct connection.

To get around this I came up with a (bad) idea. Take an existing stereo jack to jack lead and join the sleeve and centre ring together at one end. I won't bore you with the details but it was a little bit successful and a lot not very good. It did work and resulted in my getting one of the cassette recorders to load my game but with an additional blob of solder on the plug I was concerned I would damage the sockets. So I abandoned that idea and ordered some cables from eBay. 

A fine example of what not to do..

That's better..

Now I have all the right equipment it's time to get going. Here's the setup I'll be using, a 48K issue 2 ZX Spectrum with a composite mod. The TV is a 6 inch Sony Trinitron kindly donated to me by one of my most excellent work colleagues. I shall be trying to load 'Flight Simulator' by Psion. It should take about four minutes and consists of a very small initial program load, followed by a loading screen and then the main program.

Watched over by Baby Yoda.

So, there are actually six machines that I have and I have listed the results of my shenanigans below:

Sanyo M787G

This one couldn't be tested. It's sadly not working. I do have the service manual for it and I am hopeful that I will be able to get it back up and running again. Watch this space.

Sanyo DR-101

This is the most modern of the recorders I have (if they can ever be called 'modern'). It's also the most slimline and the lightest.

Load that sucker!

Looks promising..

This unit has a switch on the side labelled 'Normal' and 'Data'. I started in the 'Data' position and it actually failed the first time. 

..spoke too soon.

This was a slightly disappointing start to say the least. I switched it to 'Normal' and tried again. Volume was at maximum and it still sounded very quiet through the Speccy speaker. But it worked.

Load time : 3 minutes 57 seconds

Philips D6310

This one was basically a big pile of plastic bits for a long time. Following the 'great reconstruction', thanks to the supply of new cogs from my awesome brother, it now works - or at least it plays cassettes. It's very noisy but it could just need some lubrication in the right places. Not so sure about whether it will load Speccy games.

It's a beast.

First attempt, well it didn't go well. It did get as far as the loading screen but the bottom third was the wrong colour and once it finished that block I was presented with the infamous 'R tape loading error' (again).

So close, but so far...

Second attempt, re-seat cable and reduce volume very slightly. And...even worse. It didn't even get to the screen before the tape loading error message made another appearance.

Our situation has not improved.

Load time : FAILED

Bush (no model number)

Note the 'Rank Organisation' Logo

I had high hopes for this one and I wasn't disappointed. Well, not as much as for the D6310. This one has a handy 'tone' control along with the volume and I set them as you can see in the picture, volume about 9 and tone about 8. 

I'll give it this, it loaded the game without any problem at all. The only fly in the ointment was the loud clanking from the mechanism as it played. I could remove it completely by gently applying pressure to the 'STOP' button so there is obviously something out of alignment inside. And the rewind refused to work too. Some work required on this one then. But at least it loaded!

Load time : 3 minutes 53 seconds

WH Smith CPD8300

A mighty machine

This is another beast and the only one that came with its own plug attached. It has a 'monitor' switch too so I could listen to the cassette output at a decent volume from the speaker. On the back is also a selector switch that could be either 'Spectrum' or 'Other'. What is it about the Spectrum?!

What else is there, except 'Spectrum'?

No problems loading with this one. The only thing is that the 'monitor' function could really do with a reduction in volume. I had to put my hand over the speaker, the bloody thing was so loud! I did try again with the monitor switch to 'off' and it worked fine too - and was much quieter.

I did have some problems with this one randomly stopping but I put that down to the tape being wound too tight (thanks to the Bush machine). A quick fast-forward and rewind sorted that out.

Load time : 4 minutes 9 seconds

York Radio Cassette

I hit an unexpected snag with this one. The audio out was a DIN socket and I couldn't find a headphone socket...

No 3.5mm socket? Sad face. :(

So, after all that, I only managed to get four machines of six machines actually tested and, of those, only three would actually load the game. The biggest disappointment to me was the Philips as I put many hours into getting the bag 'o bits back into something sensible. There are still some tweaks I can do it so all is not lost with that one.

I was very interested to see the difference in loading times. Over four minutes for the WH Smith unit just confirms what I thought in that it runs much slower than the others. 

Loading from tape is archaic and very, very slow and error prone. But those noises whisked me straight back to the front room of my Mum and Dad's house in 1984. Happy days. :)